Four dead, three seriously injured in Armstrong County car crash

About 45 miles northeast of Pittsburgh sits South Bend Township. The small Armstrong County town was earlier this week the scene of a horrific car accident that left four people dead and three others seriously injured.

The county sheriff said the two-car crash was one of the worst he had seen in his 30 years in law enforcement. Among the dead were three teenagers, news reports said.

Pennsylvania state police said a 19-year-old was driving a Ford Mustang GT at high speed around a curve at about 10:20 Wednesday night when he lost control of the vehicle. Inside were two other teens.

The car slid into the opposite lane where it was struck on the driver’s side by an oncoming Chevrolet Lumina driven by a 41-year-old Avonmore woman. She died in the wreck, as did all three of the teens.

The crash was so violent that it left a “debris field (that) was 100 yards long,” a trooper said.

Inside the Avonmore woman’s car were her husband, and two friends. Those three were transported to a Pittsburgh hospital with serious injuries. Yesterday, all three were listed in critical condition.

The Avonmore woman is the mother of two daughters, the Post-Gazette reported.

Law enforcement officials said there was no evidence that alcohol was involved in the crash, but did note that speed was “a major factor.”

Autopsies will determine if alcohol or drugs were contributing factors in the accident.

In these types of tragedies, accident injury victims and families that lose loved ones should, when they are able, sit down with an experienced attorney to discuss the damages and losses.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Four killed in two-vehicle crash in Armstrong County,” Robert Zullo and Torsten Ove, April 17, 2014